Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards publications 802.11 outline protocols for implementing wireless local area networks (WLAN), and sets forth a physical (PHY) layer frame format that includes a preamble portion carrying control data and a payload portion carrying data. The preamble portion may include an omnidirectional portion that is transmitted using one stream, as well as a beamformed portion that is transmitted using multiple streams. The omnidirectional portion of the preamble carries a variety of preamble fields, including a legacy short training field (L-STF), a legacy long training field (L-LTF), a legacy signal (L-SIG) field, and a very high throughput (VHT) SIG field. The beamformed portion of the preamble also includes a variety of fields, including VHT long training fields (VHT LTFs) and VHT short training fields (VHT STFs).